Smartscreen is easily more obtrusive and annoying than UAC could have ever aspired to be. Welcome to Vista 2012.

The ribbon was that terrible 'feature' they shoehorned into Office to the chagrin of all users, so naturally they would want to universalize it by extending it to every other program including Explorer. Because the dip in productivity won't seem so bad once it affects every other aspect of the OS.

Worst of all, Metro feels like a tacked-on UI mod like one would install from Stardock, then uninstall an hour later after realizing it doesn't actually improve anything and mostly gets in the way. It exists to add one more step to every function, as if somebody broke into your car and added a new pedal that had to be pressed before blinkers could be toggled; brakes could be applied; radio stations could be changed; wipers could be activated; etc.

This huge revolution in the OS turns out to be a screen that is constantly distracting from the classic desktop where all the _real work_ should be done. Even the Control Panel is now a parody of itself, requiring an extra step before moving into the real Control Panel (i.e. the same one that has been present since 1995).

But the insult added to injury is in the removal of the start menu, replaced with a stripped+gimped version, dumbed down for Microsoft's current cartoonish characterization of their own userbase as a bunch of technologically challenged simpletons who fear having their things readily accessible.

I wish I were lying in pointing out that they could not even be bothered to display an icon for this: they have dedicated at least an inch+1/2 of vertical screen estate to the word "Start" that doesn't actually do anything, and the menu popping up merely by hovering the cursor somewhere around the bottom corner until something happens. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

I spent at least five minutes trying to figure out how to restart/shut down the system before I had to shamefully Google for the answer: it's under "Settings". You must click settings to pop up a sidebar which contains the power button. Did any part of that sentence make sense to anyone outside of Microsoft's development?

I haven't used Windows 8, but I do have experience with the "ribbon" and I disagree with your sentiment on that.

The ribbon is a more robust extension of the toolbars. It does take getting used to, but that is the same for any GUI change. Many people complain when change comes there way, but if they are willing to put in some effort to learn a new method of doing things they tend to find it better overall.
The ribbon is logically laid out and the sections of the ribbons that you use the most put more things in easy reach than the menus or the previous toolbar layouts.

This is, of course, just my opinion, but I've found that people at work are happier with the ribbon once they get used to it than context sensitive toolbars or the ever frustrating popup, unanchored ones.

When I shutdown the machine the power remains on so I'll have to turn it off manually (haven't figured it out why)

When the system crashes you are not asked to choose safe mode or whatever mode to boot it simply gets you back in Metro

When you open an "app" it goes fullscreen but there's no option to close it nor the back button.
After you switch to metro you have to manually click on left corner and select close. (haven't figured out if this is the only way or if there's another way)

As there's no start button you cannot use "search programms and files" (again maybe there is an option but buried deep)

You have to perform many steps until you finally can get to your control panel.

By default it doesn't ask you if you really want to delete a file. You blink and it's gone.

MSE is embedded in the OS or at least that's what you're been told when you try to install. It's so discrete that I'm worried it's ineffective so I installed Avast.

I seems like Win 8 is not initializing all drivers on start up and not all the
services - they will first start when they are needed - so it seems,
and that makes, IMO, sense in order to make the fast start-up.

But overall my first impression is a bit like when Vista came out.....and I dont like the GUI..

If it isn't safe, there's uncommitted data in the RAM that isn't saved to the HDD. When it says it is safe to turn off, it is saying that there is no more HDD activity--everything that needs saving has been saved.

Oh, I see. Never really thought of it that way.
Before I had a little more knowledge of computers, I thought that when it wasn't "safe", it would just break it. Which it would be similar to what it would actually happen. Some data lost/corrupted.

You could make XP behave like that by fiddling with Group Policy - haven't done it for years... I must see if I can get Windows 7 to do that and then set my mate's PC like this and watch his face when he goes to turn it off!

for a gui, its lacking decent graphics, im in danger of skipping 8, as fast boot times dont mean squat to a folder, my pc is only turned off to clean it out every few months(filters are THE future/my present)

as for the ribon and metro interface im not fussed, both have plus points but doing away with back close and shrink etc still seems a bit retarded to me, its not like their wasnt already various ways todo the same thing and adding ways never hurts, getting rid of frequently used functions is still stupid tho.